Linking Arms and Building Bridges: Social Justice, Public Education, and the Law

• In Event: Private Intervention in Constitutional and Federal Law

Abstract

We adopt a novel approach to evaluate the law’s usefulness in advancing social justice goals in education by analyzing the two most significant federal interventions—The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the Every Student Succeeds Act—using Nancy Fraser’s social justice framework. After finding they embody key principles around distributive, recognitive, and representational justice, we examine their implementation in three cases to discover that laws, while imperfect, can establish a legally enforceable higher level of opportunity for marginalized student populations. Thus, educational leaders should use the law in tandem with social justice principles to achieve better outcomes for all students.

Authors

• Regina R. Umpstead, University of Louisville
  Presenting Author

• Mark Paige, University of Massachusetts - Dartmouth
  Presenting Author

• Justin M. Bathon, University of Kentucky
  Presenting Author